Conan yeast strain

[seymour]

Debate is running about how best to get the best out of this yeast. Seems to be a yeast that is a friend of hops

I would simply use the Marble Dobber grainbill. Oh wait, what is it?

[seymour]

The group buy of this strain has arrived,25 vials. . Need to think of a recipe next.

Bump.

Hey john luc, what did you think of that Heady Topper yeast?

[john luc]

Mixed results from everybody that got some. The general view was it was not worth the effort as it was to fussy a yeast and was probably best left in the lab.

[seymour]

Mixed results from everybody that got some. The general view was it was not worth the effort as it was to fussy a yeast and was probably best left in the lab.

Interesting. Fussy how?

Do you know if the naysayers built-up a starter first? Did any of them save the slurry to pitch a larger population a second time?

I know these are leading questions, but I built-up a bottle culture and have used it in two batches so far. Both times it really impressed me as a powerhouse yeast.

[GarethYoung]

My advice is to crush your grains, see them mashed before you, then hear the fermentation of the yeast.

[seymour]

My advice is to crush your grains, see them mashed before you, then hear the fermentation of the yeast.

Ah, that's funny. It took me a minute, but that's a good one.

"What is best in life?"

[john luc]

Big thread here about it
http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/for ... 337.0.html

[seymour]

Big thread here about it
http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/for ... 337.0.html

Cool, thanks for sharing. No offense to anyone--but after reading every commentary I can find about this yeast--it really seems any sluggish performance or unpleasant esters can be attributed to lazy/poor yeast handling. You can't just pitch a tiny little vial or bottle dregs or baggie of old transatlantic yeast into a 5-10 gallon high-grav wort. Any yeast would struggle under those conditions. It's definitely a poor-flocculator, leaving a cloudy finished beer, but people should know that about this yeast going into it.

I could certainly be wrong, but I think this yeast is always pretty amazing whenever a suitably sized population is pitched. It's definitely not the right choice for every mainstream beer style, but it's a tool I'm very glad to have in my belt now.

[Pinto]

My advice is to crush your grains, see them mashed before you, then hear the fermentation of the yeast.

What is Good in Beer ?

[killer]

I tasted a couple of beers brewed with this yeast last week - not the Vermont Ale yeast (which I'd heard has drifted a fair bit and doesn't give the same result - from the same brewer who has used both and is a professional microbiologist). What a yeast ! Unbelievable peach notes. Each beer, though hopped differently and with different grainbills had a distinct flavour which was peachy/ estery. I've only ever seen this with Leffe beers - which all have the same horrendous yeast tang that I can't stand.

I'll definitely be trying to get some of this for my Pales and IPA's. I'd be interested to hear thoughts from people who have tasted beers brewed with both Vermont and recultured Dobber for a comparison.

[seymour]

I tasted a couple of beers brewed with this yeast last week - not the Vermont Ale yeast (which I'd heard has drifted a fair bit and doesn't give the same result - from the same brewer who has used both and is a professional microbiologist). What a yeast ! Unbelievable peach notes. Each beer, though hopped differently and with different grainbills had a distinct flavour which was peachy/ estery. I've only ever seen this with Leffe beers - which all have the same horrendous yeast tang that I can't stand.

I'll definitely be trying to get some of this for my Pales and IPA's. I'd be interested to hear thoughts from people who have tasted beers brewed with both Vermont and recultured Dobber for a comparison.

Which particular yeast did you taste, killer?

I didn't mean to imply that Marble Dobber is the same yeast as Conan/Vermont Ale. They are definitely different strains, and always have been. I was just saying that The Alchemist Heady Topper (the source of Conan/Vermont Ale yeast, from Greg Noonan's Vermont Pub & Brewery before that) is a very cloudy IPA, and Marble Dobber is also an unapologetic very hoppy and very cloudy beer. Since many Engish drinkers and homebrewers already talk about enjoying Dobber and many have even attempted to clone it, that particular grainbill would be a great place to start when experimenting with Conan yeast.

By contrast, the Marble Dobber yeast came from Gales Brewery, which is now out-of-business but Fullers kept the Gales yeast (albeit adapted it for improved performance in their large-scale stainless steel cylindroconical fermentors.) Many years ago, Gales yeast also went to Hales Brewery, which is also out-of-business nowadays, but it was located in Seattle, Washington (in the Pacific Northwest region, in case you're not up on US geography, and why should you be?) explaining why Wyeast sells it as #1332 "Northwest Ale."

[killer]

Sorry Seymour,

I wasn't clear at all !

In fact it was a recultured Heady Topper yeast that they used. I'll be be giving it a go in my next IPA. I was wondering how it compares to the Vermont strain though. I've had mixed reports from friends who say it's not the same, or that the Vermont yeast is a later generation version of Conan that is now somewhat diminished.